34 Weeks of Clean: Recipes (And a Peek in My Cabinets)

Okay, I'm sorely behind in all things in blog land. Due to a huge migraine last weekend, all posting was thrown off. I have kept up with the 34 Weeks of Clean hosted at Family, Faith and Fridays; and, although I didn't show my great cabinet clean out last weekend, I did do it, with great results. I'm sharing that here along with this week's challenge- recipe organization.

Cabinets: When we moved into the house we live in now, one of my biggest problems was lack of cabinet space. We are a family of six, and we live in a house with a small kitchen and very little cabinet space. I also don't have a pantry. And, perhaps the worst problem is that the cabinets were made with these gigantic, deep, dark corner spaces. So, whatever I store there is lost and forgotten.

Now, that paragraph sounds as if I am complaining much about my house. I'm not. I love our little house. It is perfect for us. But, it is small; and I am constantly finding ways to adapt and best use the space we do have. So I loved this challenge to clean the cabinets.

One of my goals was to find new homes for some of the appliances that sit out on the cabinets. I don't have an after picture, but I was able to move several of these to my organized pantry from last week!

Another nemesis: the plastic container cabinet. Of course there are always sooo many containers...but never any lids!

And my pot cabinet: Can you see into the dark recesses of the corners where things just get pushed?

Our medicines did share space with the cups and plates, and I knew I needed to clean them out and get rid of things. Some we don't use anymore, and some were old, I knew.

Since the kids were small, I kept the plastic kids' cups and plates and bowls low so they could reach them. But, I decided that since my youngest child is nine, I could safely get rid of some of these and put the others up where they will stay organized better.

I almost hate to show this picture. It's all of the stuff that was crammed into my plastic container cabinet!

Once I cleaned out the lower cabinet full of kids' dishes, I had room to house our many tumblers more neatly.

And the kids' plastic ware found a new home neatly placed with the other cups and bowls. The kids can definitely reach the top cabinets now.

I traded the plastic containers for my mixing bowls which were in a mess in this top cabinet. This was also another falling hazard as some glass mixing bowl always seemed ready to fall out when the door opened. I'm not sure why I don't have a picture after the switch, but I put all my plastics up here- with the lids on them. (Not sure why I couldn't have had that brilliant idea sooner!)

And so, I've definitely ended up with more organized cabinets. This was something I needed to tackle!

After I felt better last weekend, I quickly read to see what this week's challenge was to try to catch up. And, to my pleasant surprise, the goal was organizing recipes. Now it's time for another confession: I hate to cook. I'm not a cook. I don't cook well. I've learned lots in the 20 years I've been married, but it still isn't one of my strengths. But...I'm an expert recipe and meal plan organizer. Name me a recipe system, and I've probably tried it over the years. I've used some with more success than others. But, no matter how much I organize, my food doesn't cook any better or any easier. But, I should get points for organizing, right?

So this week's challenge was easy. My recipes are organized in a few main ways. I store many recipes online at allrecipes. This is a great free site. (I think there is a paid option.) I can search for recipes or I can enter my own. The recipe entry is super easy. When I find a recipe I like online, I can copy and paste or just link the page. I always make sure I note where it came from if I copy and paste. So I store all of my "regulars" here or anything special I find online that I plan to really make- not just drool over.

Besides the online storage, I have a place on my pantry shelf for the cookbooks I use most often. And I have this big green binder.

The big green binder stores printed copies of the recipes I use often or recipes that were given to me in a format that was easier to print out. Even though I can store them online, I like to have the tried and true (and used most often) here in print and easy to carry to the kitchen. I have the sections organized and the sheets in page protectors.

At the back of the big green binder is a section for Simplified Dinners- one of the best recipe books I've used. I reviewed it a while back, and I loved it! It's an ebook, and I loved it so much I printed the whole thing and added it to my binder.

These recipe books are stored in a small, freestanding cabinet. They are not ones I use often, but they are meaningful in some way, so I won't get rid of them. Recipe books from my husband's grandmother, recipe books the kids have received, recipe books we've purchased from groups we are part of- they are all stored here.

So there we go. I feel a little more caught up now. And I'm loving the feeling of accomplishment when I clean out something new. It's not too late to join the challenge at Family, Faith and Fridays.